Naval History Forums

lwd wrote:

Gary wrote:...
If I remember correctly, I think the Carrier Formidable actually joined in and opened up with her 4.5 inch guns before Cunningham ordered her out of the way.
Possibly the only time a Carrier engaged another suface unit? ...

Taffy 3 off Samar.

And Glorious ?

Almost certainly not, otherwise these facilities would have been exposed by the documents post war. As I say , I'm sure that the full tale is yet to be told from either side , and the documents are locked away in secret "not for release" still . There are some records at Kew (Public Recor...

I really must learn to look harder at the dates posts are made ! mea culpa !

She got her degree by confining her studies to the narrow fields covered in her course , and by preparing for the final exam by paying attention to the very strong hints given out by the lecturers as to what subject the exam questions would cover . For example , one of the topics covered by her cour...

The full tale regarding Eire in WW2 has yet to be revealed , in particular the degree to which Churchill , and later the Allies as a whole , were leaning on deValera and the Free state government . This is because the issues have not gone away in Ulster ( they havent managed to get their heads into ...

Thanks Karl , thats very interesting background , I'm thinking of you now , sat there in a Polo shirt sipping a cool beer , we have our usual winter headless chicken crisis at the moment because it has snowed a bit here . Time for a fortifying stiff drink I think !

I think Holland's decision to concentrate Hood's fire on Prinz Eugen was deliberate. He was out to get the German squadron as a whole and damaging and hopefully slowing the faster ship so far out ahead would have made sense. Once she had been damaged it would be for Norfolk and Suffolk to finish he...

You're quite right , One child per family is ( was ? ) the plan . I dont see how that is sustainable without major economic disruption though , because ( assuming that the number of extra children borne to "refuseniks" are approximately equal to the couples who have no children , or whose ...

I think you are right re Formidable , she was tailend charlie behind the line of three battleships -- A ) To give them some close Fighter cover through the daytime , but also -- B ) Because the RN were short on destroyers ( as usual ) and couldnt Screen the BBs and the CV as seperate divisions , whi...

Politically Incorrect naval joke .

Q - Why do Italian warships have glass bottoms ?

A - So they can see not to collide with their predecessors !

The accounts of the battle I have mention the Zara being lit up by the searchlight of the destroyer HMS Greyhound ( sister to Gloworm ) at the moment Warspite fired , and the observer on Warspite seeing the 15inch shells enter the light beam and some hitting the target . As a pointblank firing exerc...

I can remember that photo accompanied by text saying it showed the Bismark being HIT during the final action before she sank . Undetected mermaid with a camera , I suppose . ( Bloody Paparazzi ! ) Publishers , huh ? Why is it that so many naval history books are made less good by poor picture editin...

The only way to turn the clock back is by population control ... That's exactly what the Chinese are doing, isn't it? Not to turn the clock back of course, but to stabilize their population. I think Russia has a negative "growth", doesn't it? I know the Chinese WERE trying , with a "...

Wow ! And we thought we were the ones with problems . Thanks for the history Karl , that was very informative . Is the San Juan river the same one our Admiral Nelson was sent up as a junior officer in a british naval expedition in ships rowing boats to try to find a trans-ithmus trade route ? I reme...

Karl , I was looking up Costa Rica the other night ( out of idle curiosity - my grasp of the Geography of the Isthmus is fairly hazy ) and I was interested to see that you have no Army there , under your constitution . Bordering Nicaragua and Panama you must occasionally have the need to do military...